Sudan, S. Sudan resume border talks with eye to oil

KHARTOUM/JUBA - Former civil war foes Sudan and South Sudan are to resume talks on Tuesday in Ethiopia that mediators hope will produce a deal to secure the volatile joint border and clear the way for the two countries to resume oil exports.

The countries have been locked in a series of disputes since South Sudan split from its northern neighbor over a year ago under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war.

Fighting along the 1,800-km (1,200-mile) border threatened to boil over into a full-scale war in April when South Sudan seized an oil-producing region long held by Sudan.

Tensions have eased since then but the disputes have taken a heavy economic toll on both countries. Landlocked South Sudan shut down its vital oil output in January after failing to agree with Khartoum how much it should pay to export through Sudan.